False! CNN called several local stations to book someone for a show. We didn’t end up using any of them. That happens many times every day. We did, however, book a reporter from KUSI for a story on immigration and the border wall in November. This is a non story. #factsfirst??
Under Counterintelligence Rules, FBI Could Tap Trump's Phones, Bug The Oval Office...
What IS a counterintelligence investigation? How does it differ from a criminal investigation? Why did Rosenstein give Mueller the authority to conduct such an investigation?
Here’s an interesting article over at Lawfareblog where Aditya Bamzai, an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law explores some of these questions. Take note that this article is dated Friday, May 26, 2017, 9:51 AM. Shortly after Rosenstein announced Mueller as the special council, some people were questioning why Rosenstein gave Mueller the authority to conduct a counterintelligence investigation.
Ever since Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a Special Counsel to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, commentators have raised questions about the investigation’s scope. … these regulations do not contemplate the delegation of a counterintelligence investigation to a Special Counsel; they focus on criminal investigations. The two kinds of investigations are significantly different in scope and function and rely on different investigative tools. … The Order thus appears to contemplate that Mueller will conduct a “counterintelligence investigation” that may include an “assessment of whether any crimes were committed.” ... As the FBI’s website notes, its Counterintelligence Program is “responsible for identifying and neutralizing ongoing national security threats from foreign intelligence services.” The FBI is thus “the lead agency for exposing, preventing, and investigating intelligence activities on U.S. soil, and the Counterintelligence Division uses its full suite of investigative and intelligence capabilities to combat counterintelligence threats,” by (among other things) “[p]rotect[ing] the secrets of the U.S. Intelligence Community,” “[p]rotecting the nation’s critical assets,” and “[c]ountering the activities of foreign spies.” … a counterintelligence investigation may use tools distinct from a criminal investigation. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, for example, authorizes the government to conduct surveillance for “foreign intelligence” purposes where certain statutory requirements are met and “there is probable cause to believe that . . . the target of the electronic surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.”
We are getting into twilight zone legal stuff here. Shortly after Rosenstein handed the investigation over to Mueller, some were questioning why Mueller was conducting a counterintelligence investigation and whether he had the authority to do so. There’s also the possibility that a counterintelligence investigation would be immune from interference from the Attorney General.
If you look at the authority and tools available to conduct a counterintelligence investigation, it’s pretty damn broad. Which brings up the question of just how far was the FBI willing to go to find out if the one person in the country who has access to virtually EVERY secret in the country, was in reality a Russian agent?
Remember when Rosenstein “joked” about wearing a wire into the oval office? He was fully aware about the counterintelligence investigation of Trump, so why would he joke about that? Remember how Trump systematically got rid of the FBI’s top counterintelligence officials, and the people around Comey? How in the world would Trump know to do this? This smells of a conspiracy in the White House. And how about the meetings with Putin with no Americans to record them, and the telephone calls to Putin that we find out about when Putin’s people release that he and Trump talked...
After knowing all this and much more, just how far would the FBI go to find out if Trump was Putin’s puppet? Would they get a FISA warrant to tap his phones? Would they bug the oval office. Would they tap Don Jr’s. phone, Manafort’s, Cohen’s…
We are not out of danger yet. Trump will stop at NOTHING to get out of this, including torturing government worker hostages to demonstrate how cold and ruthless he can be. The Democratic plan to hold off on impeachment hearings are going to have to be flexible enough to understand the real danger a psychopath in the oval office presents to us all. And consider this, some Republicans are calling for giving emergency powers, which approach authoritarian in nature, to someone the FBI has and may still be investigating to see if he’s a GD RUSSIAN AGENT!!
Traffickers at the El Chapo trial say drugs aren't smuggled through open parts of the border
CNN Expansion NYC 2017 PH: JOHN NOWAK Sonia Moghe By Sonia Moghe, CNN
Updated 1:02 AM ET, Sun January 13, 2019
New York (CNN)Most drugs are smuggled into the United States onboard fishing boats, trains, tractor-trailers and ordinary cars that come into the country at legal ports of entry, according to former cartel members who've testified in the trial of notorious cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Some cartel members have testified about using underground tunnels. But none have said they've transported drugs into the United States at unwalled sections of the border.
The testimony comes at a time when President Donald Trump's push for a border wall includes arguments that it would help stop the flow of drugs into the United States.
Trump tweeted Friday that without a steel barrier or wall along the US-Mexico border, "our Country cannot be safe. Criminals, Gangs, Human Traffickers, Drugs & so much other big trouble can easily pour in. It can be stopped cold!"
Donald J. Trump ? @realDonaldTrump ...The Steel Barrier, or Wall, should have been built by previous administrations long ago. They never got it done - I will. Without it, our Country cannot be safe. Criminals, Gangs, Human Traffickers, Drugs & so much other big trouble can easily pour in. It can be stopped cold!
US Border Patrol seized nearly 480,000 pounds of narcotics at the US-Mexico border between legal ports of entry during fiscal year 2018, said Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman. But the department has not provided data about the amount of drugs seized by authorities at legal border crossings.
A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency, Mary Brandenberger, said she was unable to provide more details because of the lapse in government funding during the partial shutdown.
From tunnels to legal ports of entry
In Guzman's case, the government's own witnesses -- many of them former Mexican cartel associates -- testified that after the government cracked down on smuggling tunnels, they began relying on legal ports of entry to bring drugs into the country.
Former high-ranking Sinaloa cartel leader Jesus Zambada Garcia testified about Guzman's use of tunnels in the early 1990s to quickly smuggle drugs such as cocaine into the United States, earning him the nickname "El Rapido," or "The Fast One." "(A tunnel) is the most secure way to cross drugs to the US -- the easiest way to cross over weapons," Zambada Garcia testified.
Zambada Garcia was arrested in Mexico City in 2008 and extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to importing, distributing and selling cocaine and belonging to a continuing criminal enterprise. He has not been sentenced but could face between 10 years and life in prison.
He said that in the late 1980s to early 1990s, 95% of cocaine was brought into the United States by a tunnel under Arizona's border with Mexico. But as law enforcement began discovering and closing tunnels, cartel management directed drugs to flow into the United States in other ways.
Tractor-trailers were, and continue to be, a popular method of smuggling in narcotics. Some trucks are fitted with a "double bottom" that has hidden compartments. Others are filled with goods, such as large cans of chilis, that contain sand surrounding a specially made, cylindrical brick of cocaine. If shaken by authorities, the sand makes the cans sound like chilis are moving around inside. From about 1990 to 1993, nearly 30 tons of cocaine were smuggled into the United States using this method, Zambada Garcia said.
Zambada Garcia's nephew, Vicente Zambada, testified that drugs were often placed in "clavos" -- hidden compartments in cars -- and driven across the border through legal ports of entry. The younger Zambada was once groomed to take over the Sinaloa cartel by his father, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who worked alongside Guzman.
Vicente Zambada pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and is now incarcerated in the United States.
"Mexican families were hired to drive cars with secret compartments across the border at Juarez, sometimes three or four times a day," he said.
There was also a time when Sinaloa associates sent drugs into the United States on trains.
Tirso Martinez Sanchez testified in December that between 2000 and 2003, he was able to smuggle in 30 to 50 tons of cocaine by welding false compartments into the ends of oil tanker cars. Martinez testified that he and his associates vacuum-sealed cocaine in bags, wrapped them in plastic and rubbed them with mechanic's grease to throw off drug-sniffing dogs.
Martinez Sanchez was arrested in February 2014 and extradited to the United States in December 2015. The following year he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges after reaching a cooperation agreement with the government.
Under the cooperation agreement, the government will submit a sentencing letter to the judge and help Martinez Sanchez secure an S visa, a green card issued to witnesses and informants who have assisted law enforcement. He is currently under protective custody and faces a minimum of 10 years to life in prison.
Another method that witnesses testified to using involved fishing boats and other vessels. In fact, Guzman himself is believed to have been intercepted sending messages to a woman, asking her to find someone "willing to go fishing," or, meet a ship filled with drugs hundreds of miles off the coast of the US, and bring the drugs back to shore in a fishing boat.
More recently, cartels have developed "semi-submersibles" -- vessels that look like submarines, but skim the surface of water to avoid detection by the US Coast Guard and other authorities that work to interdict drugs in the ocean.
El Chapo on trial
Guzman led the notorious Sinaloa cartel, described by the US Justice Department as one of the world's most violent and powerful drug cartels. He repeatedly broke out of prison until he was recaptured in January 2016.
Guzman was extradited to the United States and pleaded not guilty to 17 federal charges that include leading a continuing criminal enterprise, firearm violations related to drug trafficking and money laundering. His trial began in November in a New York federal district court under unprecedented heavy security.
Smuggling drugs through legal ports of entry is risky business. But cartels aimed to curtail their losses by sending through large enough quantities that even if some were seized, others would still make it through.
This mindset was shared in court by former Colombian cartel head Juan Carlos "La Chupeta" Ramirez, who worked with Guzman in the early 1990s and is now in US prison.
Ramirez's cartel would grow, process and send shipments of cocaine to Mexico by plane. Guzman's job was to have the drugs smuggled into the United States.
Once Guzman perfected his methods of smuggling drugs into the United States quickly, through a range of methods, Ramirez said, he couldn't get enough.
"He told me to send him as many planes as I could."
Ramirez is in prison in the United States for drug trafficking. He entered a guilty plea and reached a cooperation agreement.
As part of Ramirez's extradition agreement with Brazil, where he was captured, he is to serve no more than 30 years. But if government attorneys are satisfied with Ramirez's cooperation, they can opt to write a letter to a sentencing judge that could help Ramirez receive less time -- though his cooperation agreement stipulates he may not serve less than 25 years.
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